Congratulations to Hokulani Bake Shop for winning Cupcake Wars

I don't have a TV so I rarely get to watch Cupcake Wars on Food Network but last night I did and was excited to see Hokulani Bake Shop, which I visited several times during my vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii in January, win! Visit them at and on Facebook. Photos below were from my trip. Their shop in the Hyatt Regency Waikiki is tiny but you can then take your cupcakes out into the shopping area and the backdrop is gorgeous fountains, or walk across the street to the beach! The cupcakes were very good too, all moist and interesting flavors. I had meant to blog about it while I was there because I tried their carrot cupcake on National Carrot Cake Day but time got away from me. They also had cute cupcake-shaped cookies. Their Cupcake Wars audition video is from their site and YouTube.












inside the red velvet cupcake


snickerdoodle cupcake


cupcake cookies

Gorgeous and delicious cupcakes from Frosted in Honolulu, Hawaii

I owe you a longer post about Frosted, based in Honolulu, Hawaii, which is coming, but before I get a chance to do that I wanted to share the beautiful and delicious cupcakes I got to taste, courtesy of Frosted owner Melissa, while I was in town. They were gorgeously decorated and, without being heavy, were wonderful and rich, the kinds of cupcakes you want to finish, but don't need to finish in order to feel like you've eaten something delicious. The first three photos are by me, the rest are via Facebook, and the last photo is of custom music cupcakes, via Frosted on Facebook, by KAI-PHOTO HAWAII. Frosted does custom cupcakes and cakes and asks for several months notice for weddings. Find out more at frostedhawaii.com.

Chocolate raspberry Valentine's Day cupcakes and cupcake push pops

From Honolulu, Hawaii's Let Them Eat Cupcakes, some festive chocolate raspberry cupcakes and cute cupcake push pops decorated with a cupcake on the side! Via their Facebook page. Visit letthemeatcupcakes808.com for more information and see their Facebook page for weekly flavor updates.

Mahalo, Hawaii, for all the delicious and beautiful cupcakes!

I'm at HNL (Honolulu International Airport) and while I could easily stay another week, I have to get home, and then get to Milwaukee for the last Iron Cupcake Milwaukee. Mahalo (thank you) so much to everyone who made me feel at home in Honolulu and whose cupcakes I got to try. I will be back, for sure. These gorgeous and delicious flower cupcakes are by custom cupcake and cake pop maker Sweet as Sugar, who you can find on Facebook. You can reach them at info at sasugar.com or 808.294.4803 and find out more on their blog.

Lemon lime loveliness and donuts atop mini cupcakes by G.I. Cakes

I've been busy being on vacation in Hawaii so I haven't had as much time to blog about all the fabulous cupcakes I got to indulge in and the wonderful people who came out at our meetup, but I will in full this week, plus will be working on interviews with the many wonderful bakers I met, and I already am planning a return trip to Honolulu, maybe in November for my birthday.

Some of the cupcakes that most impressed me were the lemon lime mini cupcakes by G.I. Cakes. I love lemon curd, and these were the perfect mix of sour and sweet, with little candies dotting them. I kept bringing people over to these and saying "You have to try this" and delighting when they enjoyed them as much as I did! The donut mini cupcakes were also utterly adorable and delicious; I've seen and eaten donut cupcakes, but never mini ones. Also the minis were perfect for a party like that because it allowed us to sample more flavors (I ate 2 of the lemon ones though!). They can be reached at getsome at gi-cakes.com or 808-691-9122, and you can follow G.I. Cakes on Facebook and @stayfrosted on Twitter.

Honolulu's Let Them Eat Cupcakes launching three new flavors at First Friday tonight: Salted Caramel, White Russian and Ume

Honolulu cupcake bakery Let Them Eat Cupcakes brought some amazing cupcakes to our Honolulu cupcake meetup; they were so large and beautiful looking, with 7 awesome flavors.







I didn't get to try them all so I'm excited about tonight's First Friday in Honolulu's Chinatown to get to try the ones I missed and these exciting new ones below. Let Them Eat Cupcakes is a bakery and also does custom cupcakes. Contact them at 808-531-CAKE (2253) or nick at letthemeatcupcakes808.com and kawehi at letthemeatcupcakes808.com and find out more at letthemeatcupcakes808.com.

Photos below via their Facebook page.

1. (by popular demand) MOCHI, plus three NEW flavors...

2. SALTED CARAMEL ( a brown sugar cake with a salted caramel center, a caramel buttercream and a salted caramel topping)

3. WHITE RUSSIAN (an espresso and cream marble cake, a white chocolate and Kahlua ganache filling, topped with a Kahlua and vodka buttercream)

4. UME ( a white cake... with a ribbon of ume throughout, an ume buttercream, topped with a sugared ume)

their Ume cupcake

Li Hing Lemon, Angry Gorilla and Banana Split cupcakes by Brandon Cakes in Honolulu, Hawaii

Brandon Cakes brought what I think were the biggest cupcakes to our Honolulu cupcake meetup. They were majestic looking, as I hope you can tell from below. I'd never had nor heard of Li hing* and it was interesting, a very strong taste that took some getting used to for me, but I liked the lemon cake and frosting (and the Li Hing lemon cupcake got rave reviews from several attendees). I preferred the banana split, which had a light, spongy filling, and a good combination of flavors and textures. I ate so many cupcakes I had to take some home, and those are a bit of a blur in my mind so I can't tell you much about the angry gorilla, but it's part of a whole line of alcohol-based cupcakes Brandon Cakes sells. All of Brandon's cupcakes were gobbled up fast. If I have time during my last 3 days, I will try some more but I have had such an amazing time in Honolulu, I'm already plotting when I can come back!

They're based in Kailua and do custom cupcake and sell their cupcakes at Food Company on Tuesdays and Thursdays (The Enchanted Lake Shopping Center, 1020 Keolu Drive, Kailua, HI). You can find out more at brandoncakes.com and on Facebook and @brandoncakes on Twitter and contact them for fastest service by phone or text to 808-780-3505 or by emailing sales at brandoncakes.com. You can also email kuhpkeyk at gmail.com to get on their email list for flavor updates.












inside the banana split cupcake




me with Brandon

*Once again, some info from Wikipedia, this time on Li Hing:

Li hing mui is salty dried plum. It was made popular in Hawaii by Yee Sheong, who in early 1900, had began importing Li hing mui and various other preserved fruits from China to Hawaii. The Li Hing Mui craze was started by Yee and flourished with the company he founded, Yick Lung. It can be found in Hawaiian and Asian markets. It has a strong, distinctive flavor, and is often said to be an acquired taste, as it has a combination of sweet, sour, and salty taste. It has also been described as tart, and even tangy. Originally from China, the name "li hing mui" means "traveling plum". "Li hing" is "traveling" and "mui" is "plum."

Sriracha hot sauce on a bacon cupcake? We tried it and liked it! Hot and sweet!

At our Honolulu cupcake meetup on Tuesday, I challenged podcaster, blogger and all-around awesome guy Doc Rock to put Sriracha hot sauce on one of Annie Cakes Irish bomb cupcakes, and he did! Here's what happened:


the cupcakes!


preparation


hot sauce cupcake happiness

He loved it so much that I felt compelled to try it myself:



After I added that much Sriracha, someone told me "It's not ketchup!" I'm used to spicy food so Ithought I was prepared, but that first bite was pretty hot. I tasted mostly the hot sauce, but then soon after the cake's sweetness caught up with me. Her chocolate cake was very rich and sweet and wonderful, the way a chocolate cake should be, and that made this one-two punch of spicy and sweet that was amazing. You can experiment with differing amounts of hot sauce but this would be great with savory cupcakes or ones that are rich and intense like these bacon cupcakes.

One warning: If you're at an event like a cupcake meetup, I recommend eating your hot sauce cupcake last, so that you can fully appreciate all the other cupcakes. I saved mine until I was ready to eat non-cupcake food, and it was perfect, almost like a reverse dessert, the savory/spicy/sweet thing you eat when you're done with purse sweets. Maybe someone can incorporate hot sauce into a cupcake?

Want some of Annie Cakes' amazing cupcakes? Contact her at anniecakeshawaii at gmail.com and visit her Facebook page.

For those who don't know about the wonder that is Sriracha, here's some info from Wikipedia:

Sriracha (Thai: ศรีราชา [sǐrātɕʰā]) is a type of Thai hot sauce, named after the coastal city of Si Racha, in the Chonburi Province of central Thailand, where it was first produced for dishes served at local seafood restaurants.[1] It is a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt.[2]

Aloha, Hello Kitty and shaved ice cupcakes by Angel Cakes Hawaii from our Honolulu meetup

Aloha! I'm still in a sugar coma from our lovely, amazing, super fun Honolulu cupcake meetup. I will post more photos very soon, but I wanted to say mahalo to everyone who came out tonight, ate cupcakes, baked cupcakes and spread the word. You are awesome. Special shoutouts to Aaron Landry, and John Garcia of The Greenhouse Innovation Hub.

I'll be posting about all the bakers who brought cupcakes; there were around 300 cupcakes and 70 guests. The beautiful ones below are by Angel Cakes Hawaii, who can be reached at angelcakeshawaii at gmail.com and you can read more at angelcakeshawaii.blogspot.com.

Honolulu cupcake excitement for tonight's meetup: chocolate mint marshmallow cupcakes by Tiramisu Cupcakes

I'm not sure which type of cupcakes Tiramisu Cupcakes will be bringing to tonight's Honolulu, Hawaii Cupcakes Take the Cake meetup, but I'm excited by this photo of their chocolate mint cupcakes! From their Facebook page (email tiramisucupcakes at yahoo.com for orders and inquiries). See you from 6-9 pm tonight at The Greenhouse Innovation Hub at 685 Auahi Street in Kaka'ako! I'll post a recap for those who can't make it and will be blogging about Hawaiian cupcakes all week.


Chocolate cake w/ mint marshmallow frosting and chocolate mint bits.



More from their Facebook page:

Tiramisu [Tir-a-mi-su]:What's in the name? In translation, tiramisu means "pick me up," or "lift me up". It is also the cupcake that started the YummyCups craze. As a former co-founder of YummyCups, I found it only "fitting" to name my new adventure after the cupcake (tiramisu).

I also like that they put a cupcake on the side of a cake!

Want free chcoolate stout cupcakes with rum buttercream and bacon sprinkles? Come to our Honolulu cupcake meetup tonight!

I'm very excited that Annie Cakes Hawaii (who can be reached at anniecakeshawaii at gmail.com and I'll have more about later this week) is making these chocolate stout cupcakes with rum buttercream & bacon sprinkles for our Honolulu cupcake meetup tonight! I'll be posting more about our cupcake spnsors today and this wee, but I hope you can join us. It's free and tonight and at the wonderful Greenhouse Innovation Hub, and I'm going to talk for a little while about how Cupcakes Take the Came came to be and then we are going to mingle and feast on cupcakes! 6-9 pm, Tuesday, January 31st, The Greenhouse Innovation Hub, 685 Auahi Street, Kaka'ako (808-285-3363). No need to RSVP, but you want to spread the word to your friends, here's the Facebook event page. We'll have many dozen cupcakes to enjoy! And if you're a tech type looking for a place to cowork, check out The Greenhouse, and if you live or are visiting Honolulu, check them out for amazing events each week (follow @HiGreenHouse on Twitter).

Giant cupcake in Louis Vuitton window at Ala Moana Center

I hung out at very amazing open air mall Ala Moana Center in Honolulu today and saw this in the Louis Vuitton window!

These Hawaiian pineapple flower cupcakes made me tear up (in a good way)

I'm a totally sappy person, and I just have to say that these Hawaiian themed cupcakes by Man Bakes Cake in New York in honor of my trip to Honolulu brought tears to my eyes! Beautiful, and so thoughtful. Email martinez_rudy at msn.com for orders and visit Man Bakes Cake on Facebook and manbakescake.blogspot.com for many more gorgeous cupcake photos. The flower cupcakes are pineapple cupcakes with orange-pineapple buttercream! My only "complaint" is that they look too pretty to eat. Mahalo! The love cupcakes are an additional Valentine's Day option.

For those in Honolulu, please do join us Tuesday night for free cupcakes - no need to RSVP but you can if you like or invite people on Facebook. January 31, 6-9 pm, The Greenhouse Innovation Hub, 685 Auahi Street, Kaka‘ako. So far this is who is bringing cupcakes: Let Them Eat Cupcakes, Angel Cakes Hawaii and Tiramisu Cupcakes! Want to bring cupcakes to share? Email us at cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com with "Hawaii" in the subject. Stay tuned for local Hawaiian cupcake bakery spotlights all week!

Cupcake spotlight on Frosted in Honolulu, Hawaii

I'm going to be meeting with Melissa, who runs custom cupcake and cake company Frosted in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Sunday, but wanted to share some of her beautiful cupcakes now. They can be reached at melissa at frostedhawaii.com and you can see more photos in their Flickr account and find them @frostedhawaii on Twitter and on Facebook.




I'm starting with flip flop cupcakes because I'm excited about going to the beach and escaping the cold of New York! Before anyone gets jealous of my Hawaii trip, please note that right after I'm going to Milwaukee for the last Iron Cupcake Milwaukee, which I am so excited about attending, but am a bit scared of the cold weather.






Super Mario


and more Mario!




Owl cake and cupcake tower






last but not least, some conversation heart candy cupcakes just in time for Valentine's Day